From the Shimoko River to Yasaka

 

I find it almost impossible to not find beauty somewhere in my view, no matter the place or time. Colours, shapes, angles, shadows, contrast..... everywhere. Of course that doesnt necessarily mean anyone else  sees it. I wonder what is going on in the minds of people who say they are bored. Which is a long-winded way of saying that every kilometer I walk in the backcountry of Japan,... and it has been many, many thousands, there is always something of interest, something to photograph, something that prompts questions...but I am quite sure that they may not be at all interesting to anyone else....

Carrying on up the Shimoko River after visiting the Otoshi Shrine, I passed this unusual house. It seems to have been converted from a kura, the thick-walled storehouses that contained all the treasures of a family to escape the frequent house-burnings. Never did figure out chimneys.....

Passed another of the derelict tunnels for the ghost railway that was never completed....

I then pass under the Hamada Exressway. Like many rural sections of expressway in Japan, it is a simple two lane affair, one in each direction..... and it is a toll road.... costs to use it....

And then another tunnel from the ghost railway, though I believe this one did get some use as a road tunnel for a while....

Around Sano I head off from the Shimoko River as it veers east, and I continue south...

I take a narrow, mountain road over a pass and drop into the valley of the Hamada River. I follow it upstream.

I continue to slowly climb....

It is the second of May, planting time in the paddies.....

I climb out of the Hamada River valley and cross over into the Sufu River valley...

I soon arrive at Sufugawa Dam, and after following the bank of the reservoir for a while, I once again head into the forst and over the mountains and descend into the approach to Yasaka and the next temple

I am now entering an area of the mountainous interior of Iwami that I completely unfamiliar with..... exploring new country,.. something getting harder and harder to do without going further and further from my home...

The previous post in this series on day 8 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on the first part of this days walk from Arifuku.

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Along the Shimoko River

 

2nd of May, 2014, and I begin day 8 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage from Arifuku, the small onsen resort in the mountains between Hamada and Gotsu.

The paddies are all flooded and will be planted with rice soon.

I stop in at a deserted, though not defunct, pottery.

Behind, some of the climbing kilns, anagama, no longer in use.

I think this may be the Yoshida Pottery, as they specialize in larger more utilitarian pieces, rather than the other potteries nearby which have modern showrooms and make more delicate pieces.

My route for a few days will be roughly SW, inland from the coast, down to where Iwami ends , then up the coast back towards my area of Gotsu.

After leaving the pottery I head over a pass and drop down into the Shimoko River valley and head upstream.

Heading upstream I start to pass numerous ruins of a "ghost railway", the Imafuku Line of a raiway that was planned to run over the mountains to Hiroshima.

It was started in 1933, then halted by the war, and never completed and opened.

Since I first moved here 20 years ago, they have started to turn it, somewhat successfully,  into a tourist attraction.

In Utsuicho I stop in at the local shrine, an Otoshi Shrine.

There are quite a lot of Otoshi shrines in Iwami. Otoshi was a son of Susanoo and is a kami of agriculture and rice.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on Fukusenji Temple in Arifuku.

If you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.

Fukusenji Temple 13 Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Fukusenji is a small, rural temple in Arifuku, a mountain village in Shimane.

It is a Rinzai sect temple, and the honzon is a Kannon. Otheer than that I can find no information.

There is documentation on the temple dating to 1580, but it is not clear to me if that is when it was established.

This was the end of the 7th day of my walk along the pilgrimage, and from here I took a bus home and restarted from here at a later date as the next section heads down the mountains to the southwest.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on the walk to here from down near my home.

If you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.

Along the Yato River, Up the Nagatani Valley, & Over to Arifuku

 

The next temple on the Iwami kannon Pilgrimage is in Arifuku, up in the mountains, and so for a few kilometers I follow the very windy Yato River upstream.

It's a long and fairly steep climb up the valley, passing a small local shrine without any of the external trappings of a shrine other than a very small shimenawa

Not exactly sure what this barn/storehouse is used for but I find the small windows and two little doors quite intriguing.

I think this may have been the local Japan Agriculture Offices in the settlement of Nagatani.... official buildings, like police stations, schools, post offices etc in the early Taisho and Showa periods were built in this "western style". Since I took this photo, it has been demolished.

From Nagatani I head over the mountains to the next valley. This little shrine has always intrigued me as it is far from any settlements....

Dropping into the Uyagawa River drainage, abandoned farms are in the process of being reclaimed by nature...

About twenty years ago on my first walk here I noticed an old, rusty bus stop, so I am guessing that in the 50's, 60's, and maybe even the 70's there was a bus service here, but with a population that is now just a fraction of what it was then the area still survives but is in serious decline...

I believe this is called Hebiyama Falls, "Snake Mountain Waterfall"

I stopped in at one of the many abandoned houses....

This one has now probably conpletely collapsed and returned to the earth....

It is said that once abandoned a Japanese house will completely collapse in 25 years or less.... I have seen it happen to many since I have been here.....

Last typhoon season the Uyagawa River flooded seriously.... This was a new bridge from upstream....

These are a very common kind of commercial building from the early 20th century.... in Atoichi, which, like so many villages, used to have a wide range of shops... now the nearest convenience store is 6 kilometers away.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on the Zen temple Fukuoji.